THE CHILD PROTECTION & WELFARE STRATEGY
Cormac Quinlan Director of Transformation and Policy Tusla
Prevention, Participation and Landing them in Everyday Child
Protection & Welfare Practice
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Child Protection Systems
•Child abuse is a societal problem – cultural/institutional and structural
•Social investment at all levels
• Primary Prevention – universal and progressive universalism
•Promote social equality and recued the long term costs of social deprivation and child abuse
•All of society has a role in preventing harm to children
•Citizens rights
•Individual needs of the child in present and future perspective
•Paternalistic/state assumes parental role
•Child’s development/outcomes
•Early intervention and regulatory
•Promote wellbeing via social investment
•Substitute/partnership
•Children rights /parental responsibility
•Families need assistance
•Parental support
•Social/Psychological
•Therapeutic needs assessment
•Prevention/social bonding
•Partnership
•Parents rights are mediated by social workers
•Parents are neglectful and abusive
•State is the watchdog
•Individual/Moralistic
•Legalistic/Investigative/Substantiation
•Protection from harm
•Adversarial
•Children/parents rights are enforced with legal means
Child Protection
Family Service
Public Health
Child Focus
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Neil Gilbert et al 2011 & Nigel Parton 2014
BOBF – National Policy Framework 2014-2020 Active & healthy
◦ Increase in children engaged in sport ◦ Increase in child self harm ◦ Increase in parental mental health difficulties
Achieving full potential in learning & development ◦ Increase in achievement English literacy, math and science ◦ Increase in probable mental health and school work pressure
Safe & protected from harm ◦ More families receiving family support ◦ Reduction in children awaiting a social worker
Economic security ◦ Increase child poverty rates ◦ Increased homelessness rates ◦ Reduction in youth unemployment
Connected and respected and contributing to the world ◦ Increase in 15yr old spending time talking with parents
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What impact does this have on child protection and welfare systems ??
Children First : Key Principles 1. The safety and welfare of children is everyone’s responsibility
2. The best interests of the child should be paramount
3. The overall aim in all dealings with children and their families is to intervene proportionately to support families to keep children safe from harm
4. Interventions by the State should build on existing strengths and protective factors in the family
5. Early intervention is key to getting better outcomes. Where it is necessary for the State to intervene to keep children safe, the minimum intervention necessary should be used
6. Children should only be separated from parents/guardians when alternative means of protecting them have been exhausted
7. Children have a right to be heard, listened to and taken seriously. Taking account of their age and understanding, they should be consulted and involved in all matters and decisions that may affect their lives
8. Parents/guardians have a right to respect, and should be consulted and involved in matters that concern their family
9. A proper balance must be struck between protecting children and respecting the rights and needs of parents/guardians and families. Where there is conflict, the child’s welfare must come first
10. Child protection is a multiagency, multidisciplinary activity. Agencies and professionals must work together in the interests of children
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What impact does this have on child protection and welfare systems ??
The Constant Dilemma
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Child is paramount Focus on harm Manage all risk
Strong Intervention Keep everyone informed
Support the family Focus on strengths
Partnership Don’t over intervene
Family’s confidentiality
FEAR ,BLAME, UNCERTAINTY !!!
Defensive practice, Stick to the procedure, Retention issues
Some Key Data – QTR 1 2017
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Thresholds & Decision Making
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Assessment vs Intervention
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Peop
le
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Governance & Structure 1
Policy & Practice 2
Process & Standardisation 3
Interagency Cooperation & Collaboration 4
Information, Data & Performance 5
Issues grouped around 5 key themes, with a people overlay
To transform Irish Child Protection and Welfare Services, we must have a clear, fit for purpose practice approach at the centre
of everything
So What’s Needed?
• Reflects our renewed vision for Tulsa
• Shared goals, responsibility and ownership. Facilitating solutions and choice.
• Clear focus on harm and sophisticated risk management. Involving networks of support and building community capacity.
• Improve the skill and knowledge of the workforce.
• Effective stakeholder engagement
• Reflects the context
• Be child centred and rights based
• Be underlying theoretical and evidence informed framework
• Core principles and disciplines that reflects the principles of Children’s First and legislation
• An evaluation component that can evidence good outcomes - BOBF
The Current and Future State
HR WFLD Team
Leader
ICT
Admin
SSP
Solution
People are our Business Practice is our Product
Shared Understanding Shared Responsibility
Shared Solution
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Tusla’s CP&W VISION - To provide an appropriate, proportionate, timely response to children “at risk / in need”, sharing responsibility and control with
families and communities through co-created solutions and inter-agency collaboration
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Positive Learning
Environment
3
Defined, Measurable Outcomes
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Proactive Relationships
with Partners
4
Empowering our People
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2 Clear
Response Pathways
Child & Family
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Child Protection Intervention
Child Welfare Intervention
Early Intervention Alternative Care Universal Services
Strategic Objective #2 Clear Response Pathways along the CP&W Continuum
Hardiker Level 2
Children with Low to Medium Level Needs
Hardiker Level 3
Children with Multiple Needs
Hardiker Level 4
Children with Complex/ Acute
Needs
Hardiker Level 1
Needs are met
NEED HARM HARM NEED- HARM
Tusla Response Pathways
THRESHOLD
Reasonable Grounds for
Concern Report
Thresholds
THRESHOLD
Mandated Report
Serious Harm
THRESHOLD
Alternative Care
Focus on Needs & Strengths, Family Led, Voluntary
Multi-Agency Response Concerns about serious harm
and parents appear not willing/ motivated. Tusla led and co-
produced with family network.
Garda investigation
Tusla as the Corporate Parent
Multi-Agency Response led by Tusla or funded partner and co-produced with child,
family and network
Concerns about harm but willingness and capacity to
change is evident
Family Support Networks
Meitheal
Alternative Care
(>=17yrs)
AfterCare (18-21yrs)
Practice Approaches
continuum of help / support required by the child
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Signs of Safety Signs of Safety Signs of Success
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Strategic Objective #1 A National Approach to Practice – The Signs of Safety
The Goal
Principles and Disciplines
Practice Methods Assessment Framework/Mapping
Three Houses
Words and Pictures
Participative conferencing
Network building
Safety planning
Trajectory/timeline
Learning Methods Group supervision
Appreciative inquiry
Collaborative case audit
Staff survey
Parent feedback
Child feedback
Organisational/leadership feedback
Learning cases
Learning journal
Dashboards
The Goal
The Signs of Safety is designed to enable us to do all our child protection work with a rigorous focus on child safety and have all our practice, policy,
procedures and organisation set up so that we can do everything humanly possible to put the parents, children and everyone naturally connected to the
children at the centre of the assessment, decision-making and give them every opportunity to come up with and try their ideas before we offer/impose
ours.
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Thinking about the vulnerable child/teenager and the family situation:
What are we worried about?
What’s working well?
What needs to
happen?
On a scale of 0–10 where 10 means the child/teen is safe enough and we can close the case and zero means things are so bad for the young person we must remove them into
care where are we?
0 10
A Participatory Risk Assessment Framework
HARM
EXISTING SAFETY
Complicating Factors
Existing Strengths
Next Steps
The Three Houses
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House of Worries House of
Good Things House of Dreams
Even though Ma and Da say the bad touch stuff never happened they can see that other people have worries and they agree that it is important to work together to make a plan that will show nothing like that could happen in the future. To help with this Ma and Da are going to bring as many family and friends as they can to the meetings. These people will be the family’s safety network and will know all about the worries for the kids. They will all work with the with the social workers to make the plan (that the kids can understand and follow too) to show that no matter what happens or where the kids are living they will always feel safe, loved and happy.
• Court/Legal Teams
• HIQA
• DCYA
• Partner agencies
• Senior Management Workshops
• Practice Leader development
• Duty/Intake process
• RPS
• Unallocated cases
• IA
• CP/CPC
• Training
• 2 Day
• 5 Day
• Training and Development Officers
• PL Call Back Learning
Response Pathways
Partners Empowering
our People
Key Activity 2017
Influencing the Wider Context
Legal Context - Review of the Child Care Act 1991
Policy Context – Children First & BOBF
Agency Context - Corporate Plan
Practice Context – Reclaiming our Practice
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